Wireless access terminals, such as cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), may be used to engage in various types of communications, such as voice call communications and non-voice-call communications (e.g., text messaging). Setting up sessions to carry out those communications and/or carrying out those communications may occur via one or more types of channels of an air interface between the access terminals and a radio access network (RAN).
Communications carried over channels from an access terminal to a radio access network are referred to as reverse-link communications. The channels that carry reverse-link communications are referred to as reverse-link channels. Communications carried over channels from a radio access network to an access terminal are referred to as forward-link communications. The channels that carry forward-link communications are referred to as forward-link channels.
For some wireless communication systems, the channels used to set up and/or carry out communications between an access terminal and a radio access network are contention-based random access channels. The likelihood of successfully communicating data over those channels may decrease as the use of such channels increases and/or as the amount of data to be communicated via those same channels increases. The failure to successfully communicate data can result in unsatisfied users/customers. Accordingly, increasing the likelihood of successfully communicating data between access terminals and a radio access network is desirable.